PlayStation Move

Motion controls were all the rage, until they weren't. The Wii had its day in the sun, but that time's certainly come and gone. Microsoft just kicked Kinect to the curb. And as PlayStation Move, well, let's just say Sony put ...

It's been a long road to releasing Sportsfriends but this collection of four fun local multiplayer games is almost there. The PS3 and PS4 versions of the game launch May 6 in North America ($14.99) and a day later in Europe ...

Sony has filed for a new patent regarding their PlayStation Move controller, and it looks like it's going modular, if the filing is actually going to be acted on at some point. The patent allows for the controller to be ...

Few games represent that sense of indie pride better than Sportsfriends, a compilation of local multiplayer titles which includes Johann Sebastian Joust. It was already getting a PlayStation 3 release after a succe...

And then there's that Quick Draw game too
You know what's awesome? Wild-west style duels. You know what else is awesome? Touching butts. Fortunately for you, dear reader, Papa Spencer is here to deliver.
I ran into Stephen Morris at Indiecade at E3 this year and I'm...

People often love Valve because they're the company that keeps on giving. Today, you'll be able to bottle some of that love in the form of free Portal 2 DLC, exclusively for the PS3 version of the game. The DLC is said to be...

Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut comes out next month (4/30) on PS3 and it will offer retailer-specific pre-order bonuses, which is a little bit of an oddity for a game getting its unexpected second life. Almost takes the s...

Media Molecule took the stage at Sony's PlayStation 4 event and revealed that their next project will help players cut through the crap, sweep away the techy mess, and put players in the designer's chair. After two years of r...

Feb 11 //
Daniel StarkeyI started thinking about all of this a few weeks ago, wondering what trends and innovations would be influential for gaming. What will forever change the face of this industry as we know it? After some discussions with the rest of the staff here, we’ve got it down to a list of a few things whose impact will probably be with us for some time to come.
Motion Controls
The Wii, Kinect and Move. If there’s one development that could really sum-up this generation, motion controls might be it.
It started back in ’06 with the release of Nintendo’s Wii. Instead of trying to keep up with the graphical race between Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo chose to use an innovative control mechanism, banking on the idea that developers would use it to create games that were compelling enough to draw in casual gamers and the core crowd alike.
It worked, more or less. At just under 100 million units, the Wii is still *technically* the most successful console from this generation. I say technically, because Wii sales have been largely stagnant for a couple of years, giving both the PS3 and 360 quite some time to catch up.
Early on, however, no one knew how the whole thing would play out. Initially, the Wii was selling so fast that it looked like it was a real contender to surpass the PlayStation 2. The other two companies, realizing the mass appeal of motion controls, Microsoft and Sony moved to produce peripherals that would give their respective consoles functionality that rivaled that of the Wii.
At E3 2009, Kinect and Move were shown for the first time. While each unit was met with different levels of success, they were indicative of something more -- a desire to simplify, to cut back on the growing complexity of traditional console controls.
For all of its imperfections, motion controls allowed easy translation of subtle, nuanced movement between player and the screen. Games like Wii Sports and Dance Central rode the wave of popularity and saw pretty substantial success. Kinect showed, for the first time, that a peripheral not initially bundled with a console could not only be financially viable, but see incredible mainstream acceptance, selling over 8 million units in the first 60 days and setting a world record for the fastest selling consumer electronics device ever released.
While it’s not certain whether the "Nextbox" or the PS4 will keep up with the motion control standard, but the Wii U, the first console of the 8th generation, has already taken the legacy of its predecessor and built upon it. Microsoft has also been unusually dedicated to Kinect, and I honestly don’t see them dropping that support anytime soon.
This is perhaps one of the most pernicious and frustrating new bits of tech I’ve seen in some time. I’ve written before about the need for games that are open and accessible to people who may be differently abled, and that sentiment hasn’t changed. Motion controls, indeed, can be very helpful for some individuals, but it seems that more often than not it is a restriction. Playing the Wii for example can be tiring, even if it just means holding your arm in one specific place for extended periods of time. Motion controls, more often than not place an additional barrier between the player and the game.
Standard console controls have been fine-tuned for years and it’s pretty rare to see even the worst games completely screw them up. Anytime a new Kinect or Move game comes out, however, the first and most important discussion that’s had is whether or not the controls are even competently implemented. The simple act of not screwing something up is now seen as an exceptional accomplishment because just being okay is the new bar.
Maybe I’m wrong, but within the past few years I haven’t seen anything pull off new control schemes quite as well as games like Wii Sports or Dance Central, and they are meant for very general audiences and are very liberal with what kinds of movements they will accept as being correct. This tech isn't really ready for prime time and probably won’t be for a while- not to the degree required to justify the cost.
When I was young, my mom told me that eventually all games would be controlled with the whole body. Even back then, I knew that was a bad idea. I’m not necessarily against change in the abstract, but at no point have I seen anything that justifies two expensive add-ons and an entire console that’s a generation behind.
Creativity on the part of the developers brings innovation. Messing with the most fundamental aspect of a machine (its interface) undoes everything people have learned since gaming has… been. People can say what they like, but this is one shift that gives me a lot more stress, physical pain, and hours of frustration than it should have.
At the end of the day, ask yourself- do you want Red Steel or do you want Portal?
[image courtesy of SlamDunk! Studios , I'm a Gamer Too, and Kotaku Australia]

Many embarassing Facebook images laterIf current estimations are to be believed, the current console generation will be the longest we’ve seen in the history of gaming. As of right now, just a little less than one-third of my life fits between November 16, ...

Jan 29 //
Steven HansenDeadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut (PlayStation 3) Developer: Access Games Publisher: Rising Star Games Release: April 2013 From the onset, things are looking good. We funnel into a room and shake hands with SWERY and Tomio Kanazawa, who does SWERY’s more laborious translating. Kanazawa is a producer and the Vice President of Toybox Inc., where he works with Harvest Moon creator Toybox founder Yasuhiro Wada. The two know each other from Marvelous, where Kanazawa was a producer and Wada the eventual CEO. Marvelous published Deadly Premonition in Japan. There’s more than a little luck to the game’s perseverance and eventual release. Kanazawa and SWERY have been working together for some time now and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. At first glance the two seem rather juxtaposed. Kanazawa sits upright in a sensible black blazer and fields questions. SWERY is laid back on the couch as if at a Roman banquet, his eyebrows contorting with life behind black, thick framed glasses. But their great relationship quickly becomes evident. Later in the interview, after talking Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes and even more obscure 80’s flick Gotcha! while driving around in Deadly Premonition, Destructoid video personality and generally debonair gent Spencer Hayes (expect an on camera interview soon) asked if any new in car diatribes were among the game’s new additions. SWERY’s eyebrows emoted further still as Kanazawa explained how SWERY had written a bunch more but, “I had to say ‘no,’ there was not enough time,” he offered, a tad bereft. “He was so upset,” Kanazawa continued, laughing. “He still complains,” Kanazawa smiled as SWERY, who plans to add those lost dialogue pieces to his blog post release, presumably complained a bit more. While driving around we were shown one of the new additions, a response to criticism of the game. The minimap caught flack for being too small in relation to the large environment. Though it looked rather massive on the enormous set the game was being demoed on, it was a surprise to see a translucent version of the minimap then expand further over much of the screen while York was still driving. Cool. The first thing that struck me when I took a look toward the TV was Deadly Premonition’s remarkable sharp, clean title menu. When you start a new game, gone is the difficulty option, the harder iterations of which previously kept some players from completing or continuing with the game. SWERY wants people to play the game, wholly and to the end. The visual upgrade is obvious. As we open up to a mutilated corpse of a girl eerily strung up on a tree, details that were previously lost are for the first time seen, like a clear demarcation of tears on the ghastly face. Mind, it isn’t an entirely rebuilt game. It still shows age and budget, but it also looks damn good. This is a proper director’s cut, of course, not just an HD rebuild. 3D and PlayStation Move support have both been integrated into the game. In the realm of controls, the default scheme has been remapped to better match the expected third-person shooter scheme (right analog to aim and so on; you’re still stuck in one place when shooting). “This game is too unique,” SWERY offered. There’s a concerted effort to appeal to a new audience as well as possible (better visuals, slightly more standardized controls) without compromising the game. Additional scenes, from SWERY, have been added to Director’s Cut. There is a new prologue, for instance, that then cuts right into the introduction fans are familiar with. SWERY also wrote an epilogue that he says will address certain concerns over narrative elements. “It was not difficult to write the new ending,” he said, noting that after three months of discussion he was able to write it in a week. The pair insists that the additional content was handled so as to “not destroy the original story.” The DLC will not be story-based, either, though further details are being kept under wraps. There haven’t been too many fundamental additions in terms of gameplay beyond fixes and the like, either. When asked if there were any new weapons, Kanazawa responded with a negative, mentioning there were already so many unique weapons, “like a guitar, like a rock star,” at which point SWERY, behind him, pantomimes Pete Townshend going to town on a guitar. With a custom moniker like SWERY (or SWERY65), you might expect a bit of the rock star persona in the chap, but there’s no hint of ego here. Just a calm fluidity, affable nature, a penchant for obscure American culture, and those wild eyebrows that add life to every expression. At one point during the demo SWERY gracefully, silently elevated himself from his laid back position and opened the inexplicably closed air conditioning vent in the slowly overheating room and laid back down. It was strangely cool (pun intended), and relished. Speaking of relish, he loves hamburgers.
SWERY’s simultaneously placid and plucky demeanor are a fit for Deadly Premonition’s peaceful, small town vibes. In talking about the town and why he chose to set the game there, he mentioned how its peaceful nature contrasted sharply with the horrific depravity occurring there. Making the normal seem alien is an effective horror tool. “Something you are always watching in your normal life begins turning into horrible things,” Kanazawa translated. But don’t call it a survival horror game. “Sometimes the game is categorized as survival horror but he did not mean for it fall into this genre,” Kanazawa explained. “Solving the mystery is the main part of the game,” he added, likening it to the detective story it is in spite of more otherworldly horror elements. Of course, just breathing in the daily life of the town is a main part of the game, by which you’re breathing in a part of SWERY. There is a squirrel obsessed character in the game because squirrels are uncommon in Japan, but we’re filthy with them. Similarly, one of the times SWERY was here researching for Deadly Premonition he stumbled upon a scene in which two individuals sat separate from each other at a cartoonishly long table. That scene made it straight into the game. If you haven’t played Deadly Premonition yet -- and even if you have -- you owe it to yourself to pick up the Director’s Cut. It’s unlike anything out there and brimming with personality. That the game even exists defies credulity. Countless times the duo was told to stop making it. It was almost cancelled multiple times. It was almost given a rating that would’ve made it unsellable. It had little appeal to the Japanese audience and did poorly there. In spite of this, Deadly Premonition and its creators have persevered. And now we’re getting a full-fledged director’s cut.
Do you feel that, Zach? That’s a heartwarming success story in an occasionally bleakly unoriginal industry. It feels good.

Gazing into an abyss of hamburgers, eyebrows, and coffeeDestructoid’s love affair with the inimitable, idiosyncratic Deadly Premonition is a point of public record. Jim’s infamous, glowing, 10/10 review turned a lot of people onto the game -- myself included -- and for...

Dec 07 //
Allistair Pinsof
BioShock Infinite (PC [previewed], Xbox 360 [previewed], PlayStation 3)Developer: Irrational GamesPublisher: 2K GamesRelease: March 26, 2013
It’s hard not to dip my feet into hyperbole when discussing the original BioShock’s impact. It changed the way I played games. Literally.
On my first playthrough, I blasted through it while listening to music on my iPod. Videogame stories are generally trite, shallow, and dull, so why would BioShock be any different? Upon hearing from critics and friends that the story is what makes the game special, I played through BioShock a second time, listening to every audio log and absorbing every environmental detail. It enriched the way I digest videogames -- a personal transformation that would mean very little in the narrative wasteland that would follow.
It’s 2012 and I still feel like barely any developers have learned from BioShock. Well, barely anyone besides Irrational. BioShock Infinite is everything BioShock was, yet better. But what blew me away from the game’s first three hours is that it isn’t what I expected. How can you expect the unexpected, after all? Infinite’s world is one of pure imagination and wonder. It’s story is much denser and full of controversial subjects that hit close to home. It’s dialogue is much warmer, lively, and comfortable with comedic delivery. And, its visuals? Oh boy.
Even with some real nasty Unreal Engine 3 texture pop-in (on Xbox 360), Infinite is the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen. On PC, Infinite becomes a portal into another world that speaks to the soul without even a whisper. Anywhere your eyes fall, there is a possible screenshot to be had -- the type of screenshot that Dead End Thrills would painstakingly frame in another game. In Infinite, these wonderfully composed frames simply exist all around the player.
Aesthetics is rarely how I lead a preview, because it’s not often what creates immersion -- what I consider the most important aspect of games. The enchantment has been undone and we now understand as consumers what lazy developers probably hoped we would never realize: Scripted events aren’t enough to create immersion. What creates true immersion in videogames is attention to detail.
Even lacking its final layer of polish, Infinite is a title so rich with detail that it astounds me to think this is a game being released on current gen consoles. Walking the floating city of Columbia’s garish city streets, full of painstaking detail, makes me realize that we’ve been living in the fake HD era. Columbia is something greater. It's a place you can believe in. Virtual tourism has never been better. There is always so much to look at, interact with, and listen to. If Irrational made the next Yakuza, I feel like us nerds would have the cheapest ticket to Japan ever sold.
These details extend beyond level design and art direction. There is a ladder that someone expects you to climb. In any other game, NPCs would awkwardly stare at you as you hesitate to act. In Infinite, the NPCs make a conversation out of the player's reluctance to climb.
There is a preacher giving a sermon. In any other game, the sermon would go on for a little bit and then end, expecting the player to trigger the next scene. In Infinite, the sermon goes on and on and on, until I started questioning why I was even listening to it and what my role is in this scenario. I won’t say something a crazy person would say, like “I forgot I was playing a videogame.” But sliding into this role and this world is so seamless and easy that it’s almost worrisome.
I can list off many more small details, but I’d like to put the lens onto a much bigger part of the game: Elizabeth. Though her dress, acting, and dialogue conveyed a pure innocence in past Infinite demos, Elizabeth’s actual role in the game wasn't clear. There’s a good reason for that: It’s never clear and that’s part of its charm. She serves as a conduit for some battle mechanics, such as summoning support items, cover, and turrets through opening rifts. Sometimes she just wants to hang out, throw the player some money she found in a crate, comment on a sign found in the street, or wander off and explore.
If the main protagonist Booker DeWitt supports the player’s bloodlust, Elizabeth supports the player’s curiosity about the world. Locked up in a tower throughout childhood and sheltered from evil, Elizabeth enters Columbia wide-eyed and giddy. She celebrates the blue skies above, other people around her and freedom to explore like we all did upon playing our first Zelda game. I felt good being around Elizabeth.
She’s more than just a chess piece in Infinite’s story. Elizabeth encourages the player to experience Columbia in a way that they might not without her. There is a scene where she invites Booker to dance with her on a dock at dusk. She spins like a Disney princess and rests her saucer eyes on the player. It’s that moment when I think, “I will cut Levine if something terrible should happen to her!”
I’ve talked about the good of Infinite, so let’s address the minor nagging issues I have with the game’s combat. Here’s the deal: It’s too good. Bear with me for a moment. The original BioShock was a rather slow-paced dungeon crawler with a few combat encounters that got a little hectic. Infinite’s combat is much faster and vertically-inclined, in part due to the skylines -- elevated railways that you can hook onto and ride like a rollercoaster; a sensation on par with a stellar racing game. Numbers now pop above an enemy’s head. Vigors, powers that are akin to Plasmids from BioShock, offer strategic depth since you can use each as an offensive projectile or defensive mine. There is now gear and various other ways to upgrade your abilities too.
Infinite’s combat is fast and thrilling, but it creates a dissonance between the exploration and action that didn’t exist in the first BioShock. Whenever a major fight ended in Infinite, I wanted more. Stopping to open every crate, explore every corner, and view every silent film (there are audio logs as well) requires an amount of self-discipline that can be difficult to summon. Perhaps the pace slows down a bit as the game goes on. Other than this, I can’t say anything all that bad about the combat. The AI isn’t anything to write home about and I’m very disappointed about the two-weapon limit, but these are the sort of things you can forgive.
The main thing that separates Infinite from the first two BioShock titles (and damn near every game in existence) is that it’s a celebration of life instead of death. No longer are you walking through the broken homes that once existed in Rapture. Now, you walk city streets populated with happy people living their lives. Rapture was a place where inventions served a practical purpose, but, in Columbia, technology is dedicated to novelties that beget amusement. Underneath the firmament and optimism is a story about the freedom to be happy, who deserves it, who doesn’t, and why. The narrative choices may lack depth, but the overall impact of the story should be one that leaves players racing to forums to discuss.
As much as I enjoy BioShock, I never thought it lived up to the promise of wonder that the opening 15 minutes delivered. Even after two hours, I barely scratched the surface of Infinite’s world, story, and combat. There is still so much to talk about and so much I want players to discover for themselves. Even as the demo came to an end, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Just like heavenBioShock Infinite begins much as the original begins: a mysterious man, lost at sea, on a mission that starts at a lighthouse and leads to who knows where. But then, the player ascends up toward the heavens, or at least wh...

A new patent from Sony has revealed a unique little idea that potentially hints at future PlayStation plans -- a hybridized controller that blends both the DualShock and PlayStation Move into one gestalt beast.
The quir...

Over half a decade of frustration is about to be unleashed with glorious fury.
It's been six years, the tech has been demonstrated, yet still the tech demos come. So few games have found a way to implement new interfaces gra...

As announced on the PlayStation Blog, the In Motion content for Portal 2 that was originally playable using the Razer Hydra motion controller will be releasing on PlayStation Network this Tuesday, November 6. You might recall...

Oct 12 //
Dale North
Jess and Mike are pretty hot to trot by this time, but they're not opposed to taking a little stroll in the woods to find this cabin. They make an adventure out of it, trying to scare each other as they trudge through the snow in the dark. Animals moving in the woods spook them a bit, but they're still having fun. For now.
The fun of Until Dawn is in its presentation. It plays out exactly like a horror film, complete with the pop-out scares and sharp, snarky writing you'd expect. There's also plenty in the way of funny dialogue and situations, coming directly from well-versed horror film writers.
Until Dawn is unique in that it uses the PS Move controller exclusively. Most of the time it serves as a flashlight for the eight game characters. Movement is controlled by pointing the torch in the desired direction, and the analog trigger controls the speed of movement. The main action button on the controller takes care of most of the world interactions and puzzle solving. In the times where a character is using an item, 1:1 movement of the Move controller lets the player take over. Turning a key, pulling blinds, or firing a gun are done exactly as you'd expect.
The trek to the cabin stays fun until the couple hears a strange noise and soon after finds a deer that looked to be ripped open by something terrible. As they examine it, it's ripped away. Scared shitless, they take off running until they find the cabin, and then they lock themselves inside.
In the normal world, strange noises and dead animals would have killed the mood. But in the world of horror flicks, the lovebirds are ready to rock in minutes. First, Jess insists, the blinds must be closed and the fireplace must be warm. More strange noises hinder their progress for a bit, but eventually Michael gets her down to panties and bra.
Just when the getting gets good, Jessica is violently ripped through the window of the front door by some unseen attacker, leaving a trail of blood out the door and through the snow, leading out to the woods. Mike runs to follow the trail, rifle in hand. This leads him into the depths of an abandoned mining operation, where he finds Jessica's maimed body laying in a heap on a lift. Just as the attacker sneaks up on Mike the screen goes black.
If you're keen on this particular kind of teen horror flick, I think you'll really enjoy Until Dawn. It stretches the typical movie story into a 5 or more hour adventure where you'll eventually control each of the eight cast members. They all can die, or you can complete the game with all surviving -- it's up to you.
I could see Until Dawn being a great game to play with a small group, with the lights out and cold beers on hand. The group could make calls on how to proceed, and the Move controller could be passed off.
I'm looking forward to popping some popcorn for Until Dawn.

Announced at gamescom earlier this year, Until Dawn puts players in control of the cast of characters in what looks to be a classic teen horror film. It's a PS3 title set for next year, and it uses the PlayStation Move contro...

I don't know how many times I can play Okami and come up with something to say without feeling like I'm repeating myself. I played it on the PS2, then again on the Wii, and today I played it on the PS3 in its latest inca...

Wonderbook: Book of Spells will be out on November 13 for $39.99, just in time for Black Friday shopping madness. There will also be a bundle version available for $79.99 that will come with the game, Wonderbook peripheral, ...

Aug 28 //
Ian Bonds[embed]233646:44864[/embed]
Lights, Camera, Party! (PlayStation Network)Developer: Frima Studio Inc.Publisher: SCEAReleased: August 28, 2012 MSRP: $29.99 ($14.99 for PlayStation Plus)
In the game's story mode, one of APE TV's satellites crashes into the Funzini family's house so the studio owner, Gus Pacho, invites them to star in a wacky game show and compete for the grand prize: THE HOME OF THEIR DREAMS! Players then have to compete against each other in a variety of mini-games sharing a single controller. As each player gains points during their game, whoever wins the round wins a portion of the house designed with their selected character in mind. For example, Papa Funzini loves candy, so his house is themed with sweets, while little Billy Funzini loves cowboys, so his dream home looks western, and so on.
There are five family members to choose from, but this is only used to put a face to your profile in story mode and a style to your home sections. The story mode supports up to four players, but there's a party mode which supports up to eight. Again, all of these modes can be played with a single Move controller.
The mini-games themselves are your standard motion-controlled fare: swing at this, rotate that, move it up to do one thing, down for another, etc. Honestly, there's nothing really inspired or unique that you haven't seen before in another form in some other mini-game collection, but at least the motion controls perform well. Because it's PlayStation Move, they incorporate some forward and back movements -- such as twisting blocks to be pushed into the properly shaped holes -- so it's not just a lot of waggle (though there is plenty of that, too).
There's also some color matching for the ball on the top of the controller, but every mini-game is easily described just before you perform it, from holding it up to your face to dodge incoming pies, to yelling into the mic on the PlayStation Eye camera to raise the decibels and destroy a mountain. For some reason, there is a heavy monkey theme to be found (many of the games star the APE TV's staff, who are all monkeys), but it's never explained. Not that you'll be looking for much plot here.
As you play through, there's a decent amount of competition to be had, as players can try to beat high scores on different events. However, the announcer will begin to get on your nerves. Even as you fail an event completely, he'll claim that you're "one step away from victory" despite completely screwing up. But hey, positive thinking, right? Thankfully, there's an option to turn him off by lowering the sound of the voice in the options menu. Also there is no single-player option, other than the game's challenge mode.
The game is meant for families to pick up and play quickly while hopefully having fun and laughing at the on-screen antics and variety of mini-games, all while frantically passing the one controller back and forth to each other. However, because there's not a lot of games unlocked at the start, I found myself repeating mini-game events in my first few go-rounds. Once you unlock a good batch, though, you shouldn't see too many repeats, as there are a total of 50 mini-games in all. Because there are only five avatars, when playing with more than five people, you'll also end up having many folks using the same character for their profile. Again, not a huge deal, but a bit more variety would have been nice.
There's not a whole lot that can be said about this title. The main "story" can be played in about a half hour max if you have all four player slots filled, and the mini-games speed by fairly quickly. There at least is a selectable difficulty for the mini-games, which can present a challenge, but usually only in the time limit needed for task completion. There's also the aforementioned a challenge mode, where you can choose which mini-game you want to play to see if you can beat high scores and for medals and such, with a promise of DLC on the way for more mini-games, but after a few rounds, you'll feel as though you've already seen and done everything that you would want.
Lights, Camera, Party! is not a bad game. What it does, it does fairly well, and the art style looks neat. However, despite the graphics and accurate gameplay, the collection falls into the problem all mini-game collections have: repetition, which leads to boredom.
Once you've done a few mini-games, you may not be compelled to unlock the rest. This exists to be a mini-game collection, and nothing more. You know what to expect.

Mini-games. Apparently, they're still a thing. If you own one of those new-fangled motion controllers for your system, invariably you'll discover that there are mini-game collections to be found for your device. PlayStation M...

A beautiful cast, a dark secret. A panty shot. Sony announced new PS3/PS Move game Until Dawn at their press conference at gamescom today.
You'll play as 7 different characters, with relationships that develop over the...

Moonbot Studios teased a Wonderbook title at E3, and today they've revealed Diggs Nightcrawler. It's a film Noir detective story based on children's tales. The video demo showed off a worm detective trying to find the killer ...

Jun 29 //
Ian BondsResident Evil Chronicles HD Collection (PlayStation Network)Developer: CapcomPublisher: CapcomReleased: June 26, 2012MSRP: $26.99
If you've played either game on the Wii, you know what you're in for. Umbrella takes the player on a first person frenetic capsulized shoot-fest through Resident Evil 0, 1, & 3, culminating with a new Wesker-centric mission. Shooting background objects reveals unlockables such as background music, character profiles, and documents on Resident Evil lore. Darkside takes a similar approach, but wraps the flashbacks to Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica in a pre-RE4 mission with Leon and Krauser.
The games, when initially released, were fun diversions that offered a quick recap of key Resident Evil events in a co-op shooter shell. There wasn't a whole lot new there, but it was a new take on familiar stories, with a little fan service thrown in.
For the HD release, textures are smoothed over and everything looks a bit sharper, but not much over the original versions. Character models are still kind of muddy and the grain from the ”video footage” cut scenes is still annoying, but you won't notice it too much in game, as you'll be following laser site targeting reticules to line up shots.
The titles come with full Move support, and as with any lightgun game, this is highly recommended. However, while the original games offered a set up specified for the Wii Zapper, there is no support for the Move Sharp Shooter peripheral, just the single ”blaster” shell and navigation controller or wireless controller addition option. This means that if you want to use the nav controller (in the Sharp Shooter or not) you have to pair it with the Move controller by pressing Square on the move and clicking in the analog stick on the nav). This doesn't allow for reloading using the Sharp Shooter's slide function, but if you want it to recognize your other controller, you HAVE to pair it.
From there, it's business as usual. In Umbrella, the analog stick lets you move the camera to a limited effect to observe a little more of your surroundings. However, that feature is stripped away in Darkside, only used for selecting weapons. If playing one after the other, this can be confusing, as I was used to looking around in one, and kept selecting a shotgun instead.
There's the addition of leaderboards for score comparison, but beyond that and the touch-up of graphics, these are the same games from years ago. If you enjoyed them then, you'll enjoy them now, but there's nothing to entice you to purchase them again beyond Trophy support or slightly smoother graphics if you already had the originals. If you prefer one game over another, they'll be offered separately on July 17th, for $17.99 each.

If there's one type of game that I love, it's lightgun games. If there's another, it's specifically the Resident Evil series. If there is THREE...well, let's just stop there. The Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles in...

Portal 2's latest DLC installment, "Portal 2 In Motion," is being shown on the E3 show floor today. It includes the same levels from the DLC for the Razor Hydra controller and offers players a more tactile experienc...

Using the PlayStation Eye, the Wonderbook makes books come to life! Imagine reading a page about a dragon -- with Wonderbook, the dragon will fly off the page and, I don't know, set the curtains in your living room on fire?
N...

May 21 //
Jim Sterling
Sorcery (PlayStation 3)Developer: The Workshop, SCE Santa Monica StudioPublisher: Sony Computer EntertainmentReleased: May 22, 2012MSRP: $39.99
Sorcery tells the story of a boy apprentice named Finn who, true to the stereotype, just cannot help playing around with his master's magic when nobody's looking. Aided by a talking cat named Erline, the apprentice sets off on an adventure to stop the Nightmare Queen before she does something generically evil. A relatively light and family-friendly story, Sorcery's narrative presentation relies on comic-style cutscenes and lame jokes in a manner not unlike last year's "big" Move title, Medieval Moves. Luckily, Sorcery manages to stay a step above that particular title, despite the similarities.
Armed with a Navigation controller and PS Move, the player controls Finn in a traditional third-person manner, pressing X to dodge and L1 to center the camera. The Move is used to control our hapless apprentice's wand-bearing hand, where a flick of the remote sends a bolt of arcane energy in a direction vaguely corresponding to one's physical movements. Yes, despite the Move's 1:1 control, Sorcery wisely adds a dose of aim assist to make sure you hit targets at least 70% of the time. Magic spells often have an alternative use, usually triggered by sweeping the Move across a wide arc to curve shots, create area-of-effect traps, and other such useful tricks.
Naturally, there is some banal busywork involving turning keys in locks and waving the remote from side to side in order to sweep obstacles from a pathway, but the vast bulk of the game involves combat versus a range of melee and ranged enemies, as Finn runs through fairly typical levels consisting of winding corridors broken up by large enemy-rich arenas. While the idea of motion-controlled arcane battling is a noble one, the limitations of the technology leave much to be desired, and it seems nobody was interested in working around those limitations, only plowing blindly through them.
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The biggest obstacle is the targeting system and associated camera issues. When enemies are present, Finn will automatically alter his movement to strafe mode, while the camera will focus in the direction of the most salient threat. Of course, the game's idea of a pressing threat is not always the player's idea, since its camera cannot cope with large rooms of enemies that may be coming from multiple directions. When the game chooses to focus on an enemy, it will almost always stay focused until that particular opponent is dead, even if there are monsters behind or flanking Finn that are far closer and more worthy of attention. This becomes especially frustrating when facing elemental enemies that require certain spells to defeat, forcing the player to change their tactics on the whims of the game, rather than making any decisions for themselves.
When the camera isn't completely failing, you're left with a fairly typical shooting game in which the only real objective is to run around, firing at stuff with magic until all lies still. To do that, expect to be snapping your wrist back and forth like you're practicing for the national Wank-a-thon, because you'll be cracking that remote around at a rapid pace. In truth, there is some pleasure to be had in the fast-paced action, though it's a shame that the only real attempt at difficulty comes by way of the, "just throw as much at the player as possible" variety. Often, victory comes down to base attrition more than skill, especially when projectiles are being thrown at such a rapid pace that Finn literally cannot fire back without taking at least some damage, or enemies repeatedly knock him to the ground and hit him again as soon as he's stood up. Outside of these inelegant spikes of annoyance, the game remains fairly easy.
Things get a little more interesting in the latter half of the game, once players have unlocked elemental spells to augment their standard issue bolts. Finn is drip-fed a range of spells corresponding to earth, ice, wind, fire, and lightning, with each elemental bolt behaving in a different manner. Even better, spells can be combined in a variety of ways to create deadly hybrid attacks. For instance, Finn can use the fire spell to draw a wall of flame in front of him, then shoot regular bolts through it to create fireballs, or he can summon a whirlwind and charge it with a lightning shot to create an electrical storm.
The tactical potential of spell combinations really opens up the combat, showing off a great deal of potential that could turn a mundane shooter into a compelling one. Sadly, that potential ends just a few yards from the starting gate, with only a handful of spell combos available and even less worth using. I also despise the method of spell selection, which is done by holding a button and waving the remote in one of five swirly directions, so similar to each other in motion that the game often selects the wrong one. It's almost depressing, how predictable these problems with motion controls are, and how unaware of them developers seem to be. It would be an easy fix -- have an actual selection wheel, a'la Ratchet & Clank, or something similar. You could even still keep the precious gestures that way. Instead, everything has to be done with swirly motions, because user-friendliness once again takes a back seat to gesture showboating.
One thing to really enjoy with Sorcery is the upgrade system. Finn doesn't level up in a traditional manner, but instead uses potions that enhance his abilities in a variety of ways. Potions are brewed by purchasing or finding ingredients and combining three of them, provided you have a potion bottle in your inventory. These potions increase health, mana, and the effectiveness of various spells, with a few joke upgrades thrown in for good measure (being able to turn into a pie ingredient, for example). Once the correct ingredients are discovered, players create the potion themselves by grinding, sprinkling, and stirring with the remote. They can then shake the Move and make a swigging motion in order to ingest. It's simple and silly, but I actually rather enjoyed the downtime between combat that the potion mixing provides. I just wish the same drinking motion wasn't required for health potions. There's nothing quite like having to wave one's arm around, utterly defenseless, in the middle of a fight.
Sorcery is not without its fun. At times, the frantic fighting can get a little exhilarating, and one can't help but love summoning a whirlwind, setting it on fire, and shooting the defenseless monsters trapped within the blazing storm. I also love how, for once, the colorful ball on the end of the PS Move actually corresponds to the gameplay. For instance, if you shake a health potion, the ball will glow a soft pink and gradually darken to a deep red, simulating the potion itself as it mixes and becomes consumable. Different potions and activities will cause the Move to glow in various colors, which may only be a minor aesthetic detail, but remains genuinely amusing.
Still, for all its promise, Sorcery is nowhere near good enough to justify the wait for a killer PlayStation Move title. In many ways, it still has that "tech demo" feel to it, a game of potential without much in the way of substance. Over the five or six hours it may take to beat, the game never evolves to any remarkable degree, and never becomes about the player as a masterful, powerful spellcaster. There are ideas, hints of brilliance, but no crescendo at the end of all that build. Perhaps if it had managed to launch alongside the Move in 2010, Sorcery might have looked better, but we're so far past the need for demonstrations of technology, and the Move needs games that capitalize on its potential, rather than simply showcase what could be. It's time motion control moved beyond the gimmick stage, if it can, but Sorcery seems content to still wallow in the mindset that gesture control exists simply to promote gesture control.
For those desperate to use their Move controllers in something exclusively centered around the Move, Sorcery provides a few hours of inanity that can be gratifying, if in a slightly underwhelming way. Still, the game's chaotic camera and unwieldy controls can frustrate, not to mention the alarming tendency for the PS Move to need consistent recalibration. Had more been done with its most promising features, and had it dropped the arrogant insistence on using gestures for almost everything, Sorcery could have been the hybrid of old and new game design that Sony promised. Instead, we're left with a game that, for all its possibilities, simply lacks the imagination to step beyond the same old experiences we've had before, along with the same old problems.

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